To get tough on bedbugs: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who shouted at the creatures to “drop dead” as part of her announcement of the city’s five-hundred-thousand-dollar battle plan against the nocturnal blood suckers.

To prove global warming: The annual “State of the Climate” report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found that the past three decades have gotten progressively warmer, each beating out the previous as the hottest on record. The conclusion: “global warming is undeniable.”